Healthy Cake – Too Innovative

I am in Tokyo. Day 2, and still waking up way too early in the morning. This morning I was watching a morning TV program, which was full of information from concerts to new restaurants, and bakeries.

This one shop caught my eyes and ears. It was a “healthy pastry shop”. Japanese turn things into some unbelievable ways. Beans become sweets, tofu turns into milkshake, miso becomes ice cream, etc. But this was the most extreme way I’ve ever heard of and had to try it.

People on TV were a bit skeptical in the beginning, but when they tasted it, they were like “OMG, these are light, not too sweet and great!”. So I went to the shop.

This looks just like a pastry shop shelf, right?

Of course, they pack it so nicely, and put some extra cardboard so that cakes won’t move. Plus they put a tiny ice pack, so that cakes will be kept cool. How Japanese!

This looks like strawberry mouse, right? No, think again. It was red pepper mouse and jelly.
As a summer appetizer at an Italian restaurant, it makes sense. It was subtly sweet, but very red pepperish. Mousse was very light, but definitely red pepper. I like the shape, but had very hard time believing this as a dessert.

Strawberry short cake? But it’s not a strawberry on top! Yep, it was tomato short cake, with some green vegetable in the sponge. I don’t know how to describe this. It was tomato and whipped cream, and a bit greenish sponge. Definitely odd, definitely tomato. For some reason, however, it kind of tasted interesting. I heard this shop only uses items in season, and once strawberry season was over, the chef tried out different types of seasonal vegetables and tomato apparently matched the best.

Cherry tomato looks like a cherry, but it IS TOMATO ON TOP OF A FUCKING CAKE! WTF! Slices of tomato in layers? I admire their daringness to put things like tomato in cake, but I must say, this is something you want to try once, but I don’t think I will go back to this shop craving for tomato short cake…

This chocolate dome thing was of course chocolate mouse outside, but inside was daikon radish mouse. Hello, people, no matter how you try to turn things into something else, radish is radish, and it is weird. Chocolate mousse was very subtly sweet and nice, but mixing chocolate with daikon? I don’t know, I am pretty daring when it comes to food, but this wasn’t my favorite.

This is mille feuille with corn… Um, well, I mean, it was very crisp puff pastry, but cream tasted like corn chowder. There is no egg in this, and just mushed up corn and milk… At least it was very smooth, not corny. Description of this cake says “natural sweetness”, but it was NOT SWEET. It tastes like a very bad creamed corn layered between puff pastry.. Of course the yellow dot on the cream is pieces of corn..

This was chocolate layered cake with pureed chrysanthemum leaves. It’s not literally chrysanthemum. We eat this leaf in hot pot and is pretty popular. This puree was actually the most subtle flavor and kind of good with chocolate.

Chocolate cake with burdock. Burdock is used for Japanese home cooking often. Kinpira gobo is one of the most popular dishes in Japanese home kitchen. This was sauteed with butter, sprinkled on top of chocolate cake, baked together. Definitely burdock flavor was strong, and it takes some time to get used to it, but it kind of tasted good after a while..

This was definitely one of the weirdest food experiences I have had in my life, and I think once is enough. No matter how you say it, vegetables should be used as vegetables, and I think there is a limit for it to be used in some cooking, such as cake..

Patisserie Potager
2-44-9, Kamimeguro
Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0051
Tel: 03-6279-7753